I had made vows and to spare, but the present cannot be ruled forever by the past. - Tanith Lee

I raised my arms as if in prayer and heard the mutter of response behind me. Then I scattered the dried grains, red and brown and black, and studied the patterns they formed on the stone ledge before Sibbos. This is not such a mystic thing. You see what it is sensible to see, or else you interpret what you see so that the meaning comes out as you want it.

At that, I understood for sure I must not lose her, for the earth is not the earth without some light to see it by, and she was mine.

The grape of truth is often bitter, but not to taste it in its season would be to waste the vine.